


A Noble Daughter

by notabadday



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-05
Updated: 2012-09-05
Packaged: 2017-11-13 15:49:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/505163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notabadday/pseuds/notabadday
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A reflective prose, from the point of view of the daughter of Rose and metacrisis Ten.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Noble Daughter

My name is Luna Noble. According to my father, I was named after my mother’s ability to illuminate darkness, and a madness of character I can only have adopted from my father. My surname, though, comes from legend.

When I was four years old my father told me, for the first time, the story of Donna Noble. It was only when I grew older, and I began to understand etymology, that I realized that the meaning of ‘noble’ had stemmed from Donna herself. Because, even though Donna had saved the world in 2008, it hadn’t been just space she had saved but time too. And, as my father has told me many times, time is not, as people assume, a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually - from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint - it’s a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff. The legend of Donna Noble belonged to the history of the world, as well as the present day and the future.

So, in short, the noble are only so because of _Donna_ Noble. Just like, the healers of the world are only doctors because of The Doctor, my Doctor, my dad.

My father, who was legally named John Noble, said to me once that he would spend his life striving to be worthy of his namesake. I believe he always was. I never knew Donna Noble, but all I do know of her are the stories from my parents and my own understanding of nobility. He was magnificent, my dad. The stories he told of his adventures with Donna Noble were some of his best, but throughout it all, they were together. Best friends in time and space. My dad, the Doctor, bravely defending worlds that weren’t even his own beside the great Donna Noble.

So, to say I was of noble birth would be quite the understatement. My family saved the entire universe. I talk so much of Donna Noble, because despite every word they all say of her, she remains quite the mystery to me. I sought to be her, for my dad. I sought to earn the Noble name, just like my dad. Thing was, it wasn’t just the legacy of another universe’s Donna Noble that I lived in the shadow of. 

My grandparents were Pete and Jackie Tyler, of Torchwood and Cybus Corp. Their daughter was Rose Tyler. Rose Tyler was brave and beautiful, and she defended the earth even when she was alone. She was never just my dad’s ‘assistant’. I think that’s why he loved her. And that, again, is an understatement. 

Just as much as Donna, I wanted to be exactly like my mum. I wanted to be brave and beautiful. The reason for that was simply my dad’s affections. He would have loved me no matter what, but never more than if I was just like her, just like my mother. Sometimes I took it a little far! I remember being a rather bolshie teenager, and on one occasion, in an effort to lose my gingerness and rebel a little, I gave myself a terrible rash trying to bleach my hair! I don’t think I’ve ever been in so much trouble. I remember dad was so offended at the idea that I didn’t want to be ginger. Looking back, it was kind of stupid anyway. I never tried anything like that again. Anyway, Geoff and Seren had the Rose Tyler blonde-ness thing down already. 

After that, trying to impress my dad got a little more ambitious I’d say. I knew that I wanted to be involved in Torchwood from a very young age. Even before I understood what it was. I wanted to be just like the Doctor, but every time I thought I was getting close he would tell me how much I reminded him of mum or Donna. Now, looking back, that was a far greater compliment than I ever could have imagined, coming from him. 

In truth, from the first time he sat in bed with me and told me the story of the Sisters of Plentitude on New Earth, I knew I wanted to explore the universe in the TARDIS with the Doctor. I envied my mother for so many years, that she had got to live that life and all those things they had seen together. But then, as the stories changed and my parents became more honest with us, I realized the truth of the life he had lived as a Time Lord. I learned about the day the Cybermen met the Daleks, and the day that Rose Tyler died. The worst of it all was that my daddy, my precious Doctor, in another universe he was still a Time Lord and he still lived that life of loss and loneliness. I know it wasn’t the Doctor that I knew but how different could he be? He was still the man my mother loved, and from that I knew enough. 

He told me once that he’d got used to the loneliness. He could live comforted by the thought that it was never long before he was saving someone else, and they were begging a ride in the TARDIS. But my mother was different. He rarely talks about losing my mother on the beach of Bad Wolf Bay and the story of the army of ghosts. It’s not like he won’t; it’s like he can’t. This is a man who knows the ending of that love story, and that ending is me, my brother and my sister. We grew up in a beautiful house, with two very present and loving parents. He found contentment in this world as a human, as a father, as a husband. And yet, it still tortured him to think of that loss, just like the thought of losing Donna, even though he got his Rose Tyler back in the end.

That’s what made me realize the great sadness of it all. That’s how I came to understand how sometimes, even on the happiest and sunniest of days, I could see a tear burning at the back of my mother’s eyes as she thought about her love alone. Because he was. Somewhere out there, the Time Lord Doctor was out there and he never got his happy ending, and he never would. The worst of it was, he knew it. What tortured my mother so much was falling in love with my dad a little bit more each day and knowing that another version of him was missing it. She knew how happy they could be, how happy he made her, and that Doctor never would.

So that’s when I realized what I wanted to do, and what would make my dad proud. I was going to find him. The technological advancements of the world could allow me to hope, as my mother had never allowed herself to. One day, I was going to travel in the TARDIS with my dad, the Doctor. I was going to make him take me to the end of the world (or close enough to it so that it wouldn’t overlap on his personal timeline). If it took all my life, I would do it. The universe is a fragile thing, and the next time it fractures, I’m going to break through to him.

And I won’t ever give up. I never have, and I never will. My beloved father was the greatest man on earth, and I’m going to find him again. So, this isn’t goodbye daddy; it’s, I can’t wait to see you again. I’ll never forget the stories you gave us, and the love you showed. Not a word, and not a single hug will ever be forgotten. That’s the difference between me and Donna dad, but I’m going to make sure it’s the only difference. And I’ll tell the Doctor, when I see him, I will tell him how happy you made my mum. I’ll tell him that you never stopped loving each other, and I’ll tell him how you couldn’t live without each other, and how you never had to.

I feel like, this whole time, all my life you’ve been preparing me for him. Because, what better preparation could there be than all these years with John Noble and Rose Tyler? I’m ready now dad, and I’m going to make you so proud.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is very welcome.


End file.
